Mutts
by Bklutz
Summary: When the citizens of Panem have voted for their tributes in the 25th Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell, the gamemakers hit the tributes again with one more quarter-quell surprise, turning each tribute into a unique muttation of themselves. District 10's male tribute must find a way to harness his new power and use it against 23 other superpowered killers.
1. Chapter 1 - before the gong

**Chapter 1: before the siren**

* * *

I sat by my favourite cow, Greta, and pretended to milk her. I'd already finished my cows, bottles had been filled with milk to the brim. My throat and toungue was parched, desperate for a drop of water, but I couldn't drink any of the sweet milk, in fear of never being able to drink again by the hands of the peacekeeper's punishment devices.

Despite my uncomfortable thirst, the hard and uneven stool, the burning sun on the back of my neck, and the long sense of fatigue, I stayed for a longer fifteen minutes with Lily, I enjoyed her company. I was present when Greta was born, and I'd thought the birth of a newborn calf was a marvelous thing to attend, the start of a new life. Of course, as I grew older, I saw many more births, each one less spectacular and unique than the last. Still, Greta was the first newborn calf I met, and I'd tell her everything when I had nobody to talk to.

Plus, today was the reaping for the first quarter quell. I had to say my goodbyes. My voting sheet burned my skin in my pocket, weighted my leg down and made me feel sick. It was exactly a month since the Capitol had released their dastardly plan to force each member of the district to vote for their tributes.

For the first week, the people were in mourn. Having to vote to kill off their neighbor's children was too much for them. The second week quickly came, and the attitude of the citizen's changed. People turned on each other, threatening to vote for each other's children, blackmailing their neighbors to protect their own children.

The third week came, and my older brother signed his death wish. By messing around with the farming machinery, Barn seven had been set alight, destroying the week's worth of milk and burning the stockpile of hay to be used for the cattle next month. The Barn manager in charge of Barn seven was charged with seventy five lashes, but the peacekeepers didn't stop there. They rarely do.

The death of the Barn manager was saddening, but every now and then, the peacekeepers find a reason to kill someone. For my brother, the death was heavy on his shoulders, so he quickly came clean, saying that he was the reason that the Barn was burnt down. The citizens of district 10, already torn apart from backstabbing each other and deciding who to vote for turned on my brother, each and every one deciding to vote for him. The peacekeepers decided to hold his punishment until after the reaping, so he'd have the chance to have a larger punishment; the hunger games.

It was then that I weighed my options. my brother only had one year to survive, one more reaping to go through until he was free, no longer old enough to become a tribute. I, however, was only fifteen, and had to survive three more reapings. My brother was earning most of our money at the moment, with a dead father, a little sister and a mother in crutches, we needed to keep him in the family.

I quickly went door knocking, begging for people to not vote for my brother, but they were already set on giving him the punishment he deserves. I resorted to my last backup plan; I started asking for people to vote for me. Without the option of volunteering this year, it was the closest I could get to it. I allowed the peacekeepers to change their vote, saying that a dead brother is enough punishment for my older brother.

Soon enough, I had spread the word, and people could vote for me without feeling too bad. People opted vote for me as an easy way out, no need to turn on each other. I ticked my name on the voting sheet, and for the females, I covered my eyes and picked one at random. I didn't even look at the name I chose, I didn't want to feel guilty if they're picked.

And that is how I became the tribute for the 25th Hunger Games, the 1st Quarter Quell, before the reapings had even started.

* * *

The training was difficult; in the twenty four years of past hunger games, we had no victor, so our mentor knew the same about being in the hunger games as any avid watcher of the program. The other district 10 tribute was cold and harsh, quickly proving that she was going to try her best without my help, and any attempts I made at forming an alliance with her was pushed aside with her unpleasant glare.

She quickly decided to hold seperate training sessions.

With my mentor, Garth, we quickly established that I was a goner. Most of the other tributes had large muscles from physical labour or training, yet all the physical labour I had endured consisted of yanking on udders and pushing a small cart of milk twenty meters to the barn. I didnt have the skill with a bow or sword like the careers, I had no muscles from climbing trees to reach the best fruits, I had no strength from hefting a heavy axe.

Brianne, the female tribute, was a butcher back at home, build with large muscles so she could carry heavy slabs of dead cow from the slaughterhouse to the butcher, as well as wrestling with the cows to get them in the prime position to slaughter. Garth quickly put 95% of what little faith he already had in Brianne.

Although I was pathetic at all fighting styles, I still managed to learn a few basic moves with each weapon available in the short time. I stole a few books on plant-life and bush survival, reading them when my alloted training time was over. I learned how to make basic camoflage, and how to start a fire; the basic survival techniques. Before dinner and bed, I'd run around the largest room I could find until my legs were sore, and I soon grew substantial muscles in my legs, enough to have a hope of running away from the cornocopia when the siren goes off. I also used my time at dinner lifting weights, one hand focused on eating, one on working out. If I couldn't find weights, I'd find heavy objects, like silver teapots filled with water, or heavy dictionaries stacked upon each other.

"Have you heard, the voting was only half of the quarter quell," Said Garth from his reading chair in the corner, bored from re-reading his newspaper. I was hacking away at a training dummy with a heavy sword, without his guidance.

"No, I havent heard."

"Well, apparently the gamemakers decided that they've tortured the citizens enough, but you guys are going to get another surprise when you enter the arena. A big one too, apparently, the pinnicle of the current technology, from the future itself."

"You can't believe that. I think we'd know if technology from the future has arrived at the capitol."

"It says it right here in the front page." Garth turns the paper around, pointing at the headline. I slash another hole through the training dummy's stomach.

"It's probably some marketing ploy, to get more viewers." I say, squinting at the small print. "Hey! this is from four days ago!" I point to the date at the top of the paper. "You might think I would've liked to know this imformation when it was released?" I'm fuming. I could've been training for something else, something to help with this new information.

"And what would that help with? 'D just make you more worried about the upcoming games. It gives no clue to what it is, so you can't exactly train for it."

I raise my hand to object, but Garth has a point. Instead I turn back and focus on the training dummy.

"At least _help _me with my training." I mutter, slashing the head off the dummy.

"Use the blade further down, it's stronger." Say's Garth, apparently watching my attacks whilst reading his old newspaper.

I struggle with my footing, then try again.

Tomorrow I enter the arena.

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	2. Chapter 2 - the mutt wave

**Chapter 2**

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Stepping into my departing room, I turn back to say goodbye. All I'm greeted with is my stylist, Logal. He's crying, obviously he's become more attached to me than I to him. I feel guilty, I barely took notice of him, I just figured that I should be training, rather than thanking my stylist. I didn't congratulate him on his opening ceremony outfit, my cow patterned vest with bull horns on my head, when he could've just dressed me in a cow suit.

"Where's Garth?" I ask him, curious to find where my mentor is.

"With Brianne." Logal manages to stutter out between tears. I wrap my arms around him and allow him to sob into my shoulder.

"Hey, hey, don't cry. It'll be alright. Do you see me crying? And I'm the one going in there! Don't worry, I knew what I was signing up for. It's better me than my brother."

Logal regains himself and fixes my outfit. its a thin black merino shirt with long sleeves, which I've pushed up above my elbows. I've arranged the wrinkles in the sleeve to hide my lack of biceps, hoping that I won't become too much of a pathetic 'easy kill' target from my lack of upper arm strength. Over the shirt I have a khaki vest, filled with numerous pockets and straps, some of which I havent even checked to see what they do. On the right breast of the vest, there is a small black embroided '10', along with my name, 'Rit'. No lastnames. I have baggy cargo pants, and a simple black belt, which I guess I could use as a strangling weapon, if it came to that. I have strong boots, which I recognise to be the standard issue for the peacekeepers.

"Just, whatever you do, be prepared for surprises. I hear this Quarter Quell is really going to mess with you guys."

"I'm counting on the Quarter Quell messing with the other guys. At the moment it's all I've got." I reply.

The intercom buzzes out the thirty second countdown.

"You'd better get in that tube." Says Logal. "Good luck."

My throat has dried up too much to answer, but I try not to show it. Cautiously I step onto the platform, my checklist going through my head: Run, safety, water, food, weapon. Also, keep an eye out for this 'surprise' that is supposed to be happening anytime soon.

The glass slides down around me, sealing me in a claustrophibia-inducing tube. What if this new Quarter Quell is an arena that is completely made of water? Or as small as a bedroom? What if there are no weapons, or no water? Different scenarios are running through my mind, different horror stories.

The small disk under my feet starts to slide, and I have to step closer to the centre to avoid getting my shoelace stuck between the disk and the glass. Blinking, I raise my hand to sheild myself from the sun. I smell fresh flowers and overturned soil, and the sound of trickling water reaches my ears. As my eyes adjust, I see infront of me the boxy, black cornucopia, filled with numerous weapons and supplies. The countdown light above the cornucopia beeps into life, and instead of the usual sixty second countdown, twenty minutes beeps onto the screen. Twenty minutes to wait before the bloodbath, twenty minutes to find a flaw in my plan, to map out the supplies and the location.

"Tributes, please hold on." The electronic female voice booms from concealed speakers, the calming, soothing tone they usually use for a personal GPS.

"Hold on to what?" the tribute to my left, twenty metres away mutters under his breath.

Two small handles raise themselves out of the disk, small rectangular doorhandles that had been cleverly concealed beneath my feet. They rise up, just missing my feet, and I see out of the corner of my eye a short brunette girl stumble as a handle lifts under her boot.

I bend down and hold onto the handles. I try pulling, then pushing, then twisting, sliding, turning, bending, but nothing happens, no doors open, nothing. I consider letting go when the countdown timer starts. Every tribute is holding onto the handles except one, a boy about my age across the circle, the boy from district 6. He's mappin out the supplies, counting them with his fingers and deciding which are worth the risk to run for.

I feel a small buzz under my fingers, emitted from the handles. I lift my right hand to look at the handle, and a bright red spark zaps from between the handle and my hand.

I'm abruptly hit with a rocking pain that shocks up my bones, clicking at my joints. The electric shock rides up through the disk and into my hands, contracting all the muscles to grip tightly around the handle. In attempt to stifle the pain, I throw my free hand down, you guessed it, onto the right handle. I hear the sound of a landmine as the boy from district 6 falls off his disk, not holding on to the handles to keep him on.

Red sparks shoot up my hands and legs, enveloping me, except I'm too tense all over my body from trying to fight the electric shock that I can't shriek in surprise. Red sparks dance up my limbs, spinning around my body like lightning, conducted around my body and out through the disk. The red lightning continues, so I focus on the small patch of grass ahead of me and grit my chattering teeth.

Theres one minute on the countdown timer exactly when the lightning and electric shocks stop. On weak legs, I stand up, and I see the other tributes around the circle doing the same. Curiously, nobody seems to have static hair, and I don't feel half the amount of pain that I should. I see the remainder of the disk from the tribute from district 6, but all other disks are intact.

45 seconds to go.

I look around the circle, everyone is prepared. Except for one disk. There doesn't seem to be any tribute on that disk, yet it is still intact. I remember there being a tribute on every disk when this started.

I'm just about to say "Excuse me, gamemakers, but we can't start unless the whole cast is present." When a tribute to my right screams.

Heads whip towards the girl, about fourteen years old with short blonde hair. She's pointing at the tribute to her right, her terrified hand shaking. The boy on the other end of the finger looks just as surprised as her, as he slowly unfolds his jet-black wings from his back, wings spanning at least two meters to either side.

30 seconds to go.

The girl continues screaming. Obviously, she has more difficulty handling a bird-boy than the rest of us. I'm still focused on her when her screams take a whole octave higher, and come in short bursts. Her hand, the one pointing at bird-boy, is on fire. the fire crawls up her arm, and across her chest, enveloping her whole body in flames while she freaks out, apparently not burning to death. I look at the mid-calf-high grass around the area and notice a few other tributes looking at the same thing; in this place, she will burn down the whole arena in an hour. She has got to go.

15 seconds to go.

Quickly, I piece what I know together, making a makeshift story. The 2nd half of the Quarter Quell was the red lightning-zaps, and apparently some of us are mutating, becoming muttations ourselves. One kid feels his neck where gills have sprouted, and another girl's red hair starts whipping around her like Medusa's snakes, growing as it twirls around her shoulders.

10...

9...

8...

An older girl shrieks in surprise as her arms become coated with a silver, metallic substance.

7...

6...

5...

I brace myself to run, when I spot a small black backpack on the outskirts of the supplies.

4...

3...

2...

1...

The gong sounds, and most of the kids run off their disks, except for the bird-boy who attempts to fly off, then crashes into the dirt, and a young girl who seems to have turned into rubber, and is having difficulty walking. I take a few steps off the disk and run towards the backpack. I'm halfway there when my vision cuts out and I endure three seconds of rapid pictures, different animals: A panther, a bear, a rhino, some sort of bird, a beetle, a dolphin, they all flash before my eyes rapidly, I can barely focus on one at a time, and when my vision comes back, I've already forgotten half the animals I'd seen.

Before I could ponder my visions, the screams of children being massacred interrupts my thoughts. I grab my backpack and search the area around it for any other useful items. there is nothing worth the risk nearby, so I turn around to make my exit. But I can't.

A young boy runs in front of me, brandishing a large sword with both hands. I recognise him as a district one career, eager to be voted in the games as soon as he was of age. He runs much faster than humanely possible, I can practically see an arc as he moves between us.

I brace myself for death, when i'm knocked back by something slightly less solid. I block my ears as something loud and high-pitched comes from a older girl's mouth from across the circle, some sort of super-sonic scream. It hurts, and aimed in my direction, but it might've saved my life.

I stumble up to the small boy and pick up his sword. I can't seem to bring myself to stab him, a small boy writhing in the dirt with blood seeping out of his unprotected ears. Instead, I throw it into the bushes, and take a few knives out of the boy's belt.

I reach the edge of the forest, a deep green colour with fanciful purple flowers. deep brown leaves scatter the forest floor, and underneath, moist dirt shows through. Mushrooms grow at the feet of trees, and rocks are covered in moss. I half expected to see a fairy sitting on a nearby toadstool, but then realised it would be stupid, but then realised it could be possible with this Quarter Quell power-shock.

I turn back to look at the bloodbath, still continuing as more people die. I can see the large shadow created as the bird-boy finally manages to get his wings up and running, and has retreated to the skies. The district 12 boy crawls to the entrance of the cornucopia and picks up a dangerous looking sword, and swings it experimentally. Suddenly, the district two career materialises out of nowhere, shoving a wicked looking knife into the boy's back. A teleporter. A teleporter could become very dangerous.

The district 12 boy screams in pain, the knife protruding from his chest. Screaming again, a bright light shines from his torso, and the expression on his killer's face changes from triumph to shock. The light expands into a large dome, pushing back tributes and supplies, and then explodes outwards, reaching almost to where I'm currently standing. Supplies fly out from the cornucopia, scattering themselves throughout the arena, and tributes are thrown outwards, landing amongst the nearby trees of the forest. The gilled boy lands very near to me, dazed from his quick trip.

The district 12 boy slumps onto his knees, then falls onto his face, dead. His shockwave has completely scattered the supplies and tributes, messing even more with this already messed up game. I take a quick peek at the cornucopia. The countdown timer has zeroed out, and was now displaying the creepy word 'ENJOY :)'. I shudder.

I shoulder my bag and run.

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**Review? Anyone? I don't care what you say, hate it, love it, ideas to improve it, you name it. Just, tell me what you think :)**


	3. Chapter 3 - The alliance

**CHAPTER 3**

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I run blindly through the forest, trying to gain as much distance between myself and the cornucopia. The sounds of canons ring through the air, and I count them in my head. Six tributes have died, the inital massacre cut short by the shockwave. After fifteen minutes, I slow down and change to a cautious walk. I look up, the bird-boy is still up in the air, scoping each tribute out. Judging by the areas he is looking at, the other tributes have been scattered among the forest, but most are close to the cornucopia, just in the outskirts of the forest.

I take a quick run through my checklist in my head.

Run, check. Safety, check. Water, food, weapon.

The sounds of running water had always been present during my stumble through the woods, so I soon enough found a water source. A small waterfall fell from the canopy of a tree, landing in a peaceful blue pond. Topped off with lilipads and mossy rocks, I began to believe more and more that the arena was designed after a fairytale book, such as Alice In Wonderland, or Cinderella. It was so breathtakingly beautiful, I had to take a minute to compose myself, find a safe place a suitable distance from the water and sit.

Shouldering my bag to the dirt, I take a quick inventory check. Two water bottles, iodine, a fishing line and hook, a few bandages and a thin grey blanket. Stuffing everything back in the bag, I search for a place to stay the night.

Finding a hidden place isn't so difficult, with all of the large ferns covering the majority of the ground, I could just lie down at the base of a tree and stay quite hidden, so I drop my bag in a patch of tall ferns to sit under. Before I can stop myself, I've taken a quick nap. The moon shines through the canopy above me. Mentally slapping myself, I get prepared for survival in the arena.

Looking down at my vest, I can see straight away that I'll stand out much too easily. The khaki brown stands out too much in this scenery. Shouldering off my vest, I grab a tuft of grass and yank it from the dirt. I rub the grass over the vest, leaving the darker green streaks like a dry paintbrush. Mixing the dark green grass with a handful of dirt, I blend together a makeshift cameo on my vest, then start with my pants.

"This is really screwed up, isn't it."

I drop my dirt and swear under my breath. I forgot to get a weapon, and now I'm trapped, without even wearing pants. I snuggle down into the dirt and try to hide.

"I can see you, Rit. I'm not going to hurt you."

I peer out of the ferns and search for the speaker. The woods are bare, and not a sound is made.

"Where are you?" I cautiously said, peering into the night.

"Here."

A leg steps out of a tree to my right, landing daintily apon the dead leaves, barely a crunch. The leg followed by an arm, which angles itself to prop against the tree, pushing the rest of the body out. Brianne steps out of the tree, a small bead of sweat running down the side of her face, her long blonde fringe plastered to her forehead, the rest of her hair tied back in a tight ponytail.

"Hey, I can walk through walls." She walks through the ferns and sits down next to me, and I mean _literally_ walks through the ferns. I'm still stunned, seeing yet another superpower up so close.

"So, I know I came off a little arrogant, but I think that I might need a little alliance, and you're the person I know the best out here, plus you're still alive."

"Um... thanks?" I stutter, pulling on my pants. I guess an alliance would be helpful, with all these supercharged killer teenagers running around.

"So, what did you get?"

"What do you mean?"

"The muttation. You know, the superpowers? What did you get? I got this walking through stuff, although its difficult and fatigueing when I completely submerge my whole body."

Sitting next to Brianne, I feel embarrassed once again. I've been embarrassed for my brother, for my muscles, for my skill with weapons, and now for my lack of power.

"I, don't know. I don't think I have one." I mumble timidly.

"Bullshit. We all got struck by that red electricity, you probably just haven't tried enough yet. Think, did you feel any different when the electricity stopped?"

I rack my brains, searching my memory for the events that happened at the cornucopia.

"Umm... I remember dizziness, and weakness."

"Yeah, I think everybody felt that, Rit. You obviously don't have any physical power like the wings or the gills, because that would be obvious. I found my power when I was shot at by an arrow. Straight through my neck." She lifts her chin and points to the soft flesh in the centre. There is no mark visible. "Try going through all the things since the lightning, trace back your steps."

"So, I stand up, feeling dizzy, and, um, weak. There's a guy missing on one of the disks, maybe he's invisible, or it was the teleporting guy, but I thought that was wierd. Then the girl screams, and I see the bird-boy. The girl is set on fire, and I notice some other tributes, the careers, pointing at her, I think they were going to kill her first, before she burns down the arena."

"They did," interrupts Brianne, "the same girl who tried to shoot me aimed for her next, and didnt miss. Sorry, continue" She motions with her hands for me to keep speaking.

"I saw the guy with gills, girl controlling her hair, girl with metal arms, then I decide to get this backpack," I pat the bag beside me. "The gong rings, and I'm almost to the bag when my vision cuts out, for about three seconds." Brianne opens her mouth to speak, but I stop her by holding up a finger. "I remember, fast pictures, of teeth, eyes... brown fur... a bear! And... a rhino, an eagle, or some other big bird, and something shiny... something small... a beetle!"

Brianne can barely contain herself, and eventually curiosity takes over and she speaks. "What other animals? Come on! Remember!" My concentration smashes into tiny pieces, and I desperately try to hold onto whatever small pieces of memory I can before they all disappear.

"I've lost it again."

"Sorry." Brianne hangs her head in guilt, blaming herself for breaking my concentration.

I list off the animals under my breath. "Bear, rhino, bird, beetle... I'm sure there was more. What do you think they mean?"

"Well, the only animal-related power I can think of is shapeshifting... have you tried that?"

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"I dunno, I'm not an expert. when I want to go through something, I just imagine myself turning intangible. Try that."

I close my eyes and imagine myself turning into an animal; The bear. I'm soon awarded with a quiet gasp from Brianne. Opening my eyes, I notice my nose is in a different place, and it's black. "I'm a bear!"

"Not just any bear, that's a grizzly bear. Those went extinct ages ago." Brianne is breathless.

"I think all these animals are extinct. Most pure animals are, most that are left are muttations now." My voice is projected from my head, telepathically landing in Brianne's head.

The Anthem starts playing, so I revert back to my human form. Thankfully, I find myself still wearing my clothes.

"Quick, let's climb the tree so we can see who died."

We scale the tree, sit in the canopy and watch the skies. Soon enough, the skies light up with the capitol logo. Then come the first headshot comes on the screen. The girl from district 3, the one who was on fire. The girl from 4, a career. The boy from 5, but neither Brianne or I knew of his power. The boy from 9, the boy from 11 who attacked Brianne with long claws, and the girl from 12, the one with the rubber body.

The silhouette of a large boy with wings still flies through the sky, constantly flapping to keep his altitude. Brianne notices him too.

"He's bound to tire out soon," she says "why won't he land?"

"I don't think he can," I reply "he's too much of a big target, and whenever he lands, people would know where he is. Theres that teleporting career and the super-fast career, maybe they're following him or something, so he can't land."

"Shame, he had such a good power too." Says Brianne.

I give it a moment to think. "I think I'd be able to talk to him. If we could trust him, we could create an anti-careers group. Usually, the careers have the upper hand from their training, but this mutt...thing, this mutt wave, it's given us all a fair fighting chance. The only thing the careers have for them now is a large alliance, but there's nothing wrong with stopping that by creating out own large alliance."

Brianne seems skeptical. "Anti-careers... it sounds pretty tempting. Are we sure we can trust bird boy?"

"Well, I'm nintey percent sure that its the careers stopping him from landing. I think we could join together through our hate of the careers."

"Do it." Brianne says, her mind made up. "Just, be careful, and if he makes any move against you, you get out of there."

"Done." I say, already focusing on my bird. Feathers took over my skin, and my face sharpened out into a wicked-curved beak. For a brief moment, I was a horrible monstrosity between human and bird, then I was a killer of the skies.

"Hey, I recognise that bird, its that large australian one, ah, I forget the name. Some sort of eagle. Died out ages ago." Brianne marvells over this beast from the past.

I unfurl my wings, stretching over two metres across. My wedge shaped tail folds out, and I feel a sudden urge to spread my wings and fly into the night.

"Are you sure you can fly?"

"I feel a smaller conscious in my mind, one of the bird. It wants to fly, to take controll in the air. Plus, if he can fly, so can I." I look up into the sky, the boy still circling the sky. "Give me a water bottle."

Brianne hands over a bottle and I clasp it between my razor-sharp talons. "Wish me luck!" And I was off into the sky.

All I needed to focus on was the flapping of my wings and pointing in the right direction, and the bird's mind took care of everything else, adjusting each feather and tail, tilting this way and that, keeping me aloft. Bird-boy keeps watching me, curious, but desperate.

I reach his altitude and awkwardly position myself to hand him the water. He snatches it and gulps it down, his parched throat craving water, eyeing me wearily from behind the bottle.

"You need help getting down?"

The boy nods, water dripping down his chin. "It's the careers. They have this teleporter, and they can see where I'm going to land. I can't get past his spear. I'm weaponless."

"Weaponless?" I said using my telepathic link, "You have wings! I'm sure that counts for something."

"Either way, It's nothing against a teleporting spear-thrower."

"Well, anyways, we figured you'd need help. My female district 10 companion and I are thinking of making an anti-career group, to stop the careers and give the rest of us a chance."

"I'm in. Anything to get me down."

From here, I quickly transformed into my beetle. Unfolding my glossy green shell, I buzzed over to Bird-boy and hid under his collar. Gosh, I really need to stop calling him that before it catches on.

"I'm Rit, by the way."

"Orenon." He replied.

"Okay, so, fly down. And, tell me when he teleports in."

I feel the slight vertigo as my stomach is left above me, and we quickly descend to the ground. It's only a few seconds before Orenon yells above the wind "He's here!"

I crawl onto Orenon's breastpocket, shake open my wings and fly downwards, slightly faster than Orenon as he pulls back, just out of reach from the career's spear. I continue my descent, almost invisible to the teleporter through the night sky. I'm barely five meters from the ground when I transform, changing to my largest and most heavily protected animal; the rhino.

I rapidly grow in size, my thin shell thickening to leathery skin, horns growing out of my nose. I was a fat, grey, wrinkly unicorn, dropping in from above on a terrified young boy. My aim is off, and I land slightly to the left, but I swing my heavy head to the side, clipping him with my horn and sending him flying into the nearest tree. I'm winded, and the ground took a nasty pounding from me landing on it, rhinos aren't made with shock proof legs.

Satisfied that he was no longer the centre of attention, Orenon slips onto the ground nearby, rolling to his back in exaustion. Brianne pulls herself out of a nearby tree, wielding my two knives.

My crappy eyesight can't find the teleporter in this darkness, so I revert to my human form. I quickly locate the teleporter, dazed against the tree. Suddenly, he takes a large breath, then shivers. Another, larger breath, then shivers.

"Brianne!" I shout, pointing at the guy. She quickly twists her knife around and throws, a perfect shot at the career's chest, just as he takes his last breath and disapears. We dive over to his last position, searching the grass.

"He's gone." I say.

"He's dead." says Brianne, a sadistic smile creeping on her face.

"What do you mean?" says Orenon, walking out of the bushes.

"My knife, he disappeared with it. Wait for it..." She holds up her hand, anticipating the unknown.

A canon shoots out into the night.

"Boom." She whispers, her teeth glowing in the moonlight. She stands up and holds her hand out to Orenon. "Brianne, I walk through stuff."

Orenon takes the hand. "Intangibility, super cool. I'm Orenon, I guess I fly."

"So, you're in on the whole anti-careers plan?" Brianne asks.

"Can I sign up twice? These careers need to be taken down. I'm in."

"We should probably find a safe spot, more careers could come soon, especially that fast guy." I say, stepping into the coversation.

"I know a place," Says Orenon "I had a lot of time to scope out the whole area when I was stuck up there. Theres a maze of bamboo shoots this way, I guess with our powers we could easily get through to a fenced off area."

He leads us through the forest, walking in single-file. I follow his jet-black wings, so dark, just like...

"A panther!" I say, surprising the others. "I remember! I have a panther!"

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**Please tell me what you think, anything helps! Also, tell me if you have any ideas... I still have a few tributes to kill that I haven't mapped out yet.**


	4. Chapter 4 - the haven

**Sorry this took so long, my computer got updated and word got deleted from the computer :( anyways, I'm back now!**

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**Chapter 4:**

We saw no tributes as we walked through the forest, but we stayed silent all the same. A few times, one of us would hear a footstep, a snapping twig that didn't align up with our boots, a heavy thump around the next moss-covered tree trunk.

We'd all part our ways, Brianne sinking into a tree, rock, or even, once, the ground. Orenon would give a quick flap, reaching up to a low, thick branch and folding his glossy black feathers around his body, creating a feathery cocoon over his dark complexion. Myself, I had many choices for concealment. Sometimes I'd fly up further than Orenon, my smaller wings finding easier access to the thicker canopy, or I'd sink into the shadows as a black panther, melding into the dead leaves under the thick ferns, hidden from moonlight. My most preferred transformation was the beetle, of course, its smaller body able to hide almost anywhere, my lustrous carapace shining like a newly-polished nickel, then disappearing as I flutter between shadows.

We'd wait for a few minutes, and then we'd all rise out of the shadows, nod at each other, then continue along our path, weaving through the ferns towards Orenon's bamboo maze.

The scenery barely changed, a dimly lit forest full of large bright flowers and mossy rocks. Every now and then we'd come upon one of the peculiar ponds, reassuring us that there would be no shortage of water any time soon.

We talked only once, for only a brief moment. A small bird landed on a nearby tree, deep violet wings, a pale white belly and a long forked tail. Its beak was as long as its body, curved slightly like a banana and with a slight Jagged edge, mimicking dangerous teeth.

It was Brianne who saw the bird, her being at the back. I had a small tap on my shoulder, and then Brianne pointed into the awning of leaves. The bird watched us with curious eyes, pupils dilated from the dark lighting.

"That's the first animal I've seen the whole arena, besides you."

"What is it?"

"I don't know, but it could be a good source of food, I haven't eaten yet."

"It's only been half a day and half a night, I'm sure we'll find more food."

We turn back to find Orenon missing. The sound of a long metal object being pulled menacingly from a sheath rings through the trees.

"Shit." Says Brianne

"There," I say, pointing ahead. "The leaves are still moving, he must've just kept walking."

Brianne draws her knife and runs ahead, walking through the tall ferns, the leaves melding through her body. Black fur rippled up my legs, absorbing my trouser pants and slimming down to the powerful, hind legs of a black panther. Crouching down into the ferns, I bunch my muscles up and leap through the undergrowth, landing softly on my padded paws. I quickly overtake Brianne and leap into a clearing where Orenon is facing off against the girl from district nine, the girl with metallic arms. In her shiny clenched hands, she has a large broadsword, pointed menacingly at Orenon. The tall shoots of bamboo are behind the girl, reaching taller than a two storey building. This must be the edge of the bamboo maze.

Orenon has a large rock; no doubt he picked it up when he came across the metal-hand girl. His wings are slightly unfurled, so I hide behind him, letting out a small purr to alert my appearance to him. He spreads his wings further out, completely hiding me.

Eventually, the girl realises that she has the upper hand; Orenon cannot take off in time to escape her, and he only has a rock for protection. She steps forwards and swings upwards, out of reach, but still dangerous. Orenon takes a weary step back, but Brianne comes charging out of the forest, through me, then through Orenon and through the sword, barely taking the time to assess the situation.

Taken by surprise, the girl drops the heavy sword and raises her metal arms to protect herself from Brianne's vicious knife. Pushing back, she summons her power, and her metal gauntlets grow up her arm, slowly encasing her in thick armour. I dart out from Orenon's wings, leaping for her unprotected legs. I reach her ankle and tighten my jaws around her, just as thin streams of metal encase the leg, thickening out to completely cover the leg. I pull my teeth out and swipe upwards, changing my form as I stand up. A seven-foot tall grizzly bear pounds against the girl's torso, but only connecting with the metallic skin of the girl.

Quickly, the last remaining parts of flesh disappear, replacing the girl with a shiny, stiff statue.

"She can't move!" says Orenon "At least, not very well."

Orenon is right; her leg trembles as she tries her best to walk forward, moving through the air like walking through heavy sand.

"Quick, into the maze." Orenon picks up the discarded sword and flaps his wings, gaining lift into the air.

I'm not out of all my tricks yet. I stand tall on my hind legs. And come crashing down on the girl, but not as a grizzly bear. The heavy grey mass of a rhino thumps against her, stomping her deep into the dirt. I step off her to see the damage, but I've done none. She is still in the same position, just horizontal.

"Come on, Rit." Says Brianne as she steps through the thick bamboo.

I swiftly change to my eagle form and fly above the bamboo, following Orenon.

As we fly above the maze, Brianne runs underneath us, constantly looking up to follow our direction. We go for a few hundred metres, and then Orenon takes us down to an enclosed part of maze; A large circular clearing surrounded by the bamboo, hidden and secret. As I step out of the eagle on human legs, I look closely through the thick bamboo. The walls are a few metres thick, and are impossible to see through. The sunrise has lit up the sky, but the high walls of the clearing keep our area in shade.

Brianne steps into the clearing and takes a quick look aroun d.

"Well, this place is good. We have a water source," she points to the pond, "A nice clearing for cooking and sleeping, but no privacy for taking a dump! Couldn't you have chosen a place with a corner, or a rock, or something to hide behind while we're at our most vulnerable points?"

"Brianne," I say "with your 'power', can't you just, go in the bamboo or something?

She pauses for a moment.

"I guess you're right. Well, then, excuse me, I need to use the ladies room." She disappears off into the bamboo. Orenon flies off to explore, and I pass the time by trying to construct a shelter out of bamboo and fern leaves. I'm shortly joined by Brianne.

Orenon flies back into the clearing, clutching a small silver object.

"What's that?" I say

He unfolds the silver fabric, letting a heavy box dangle down from thick string. It's a parachute.

"You got a sponser? Already?"

"It's not mine." says Orenon "I saw It floating down from the sky in the distance, I picked it out of the sky before it could reach the receiver, I didn't see them."

"Well, have you opened it?" Brianne steps closer to the box, curious.

Orenon lifts the catch and opens the box, steam pouring out.

"Mmmm…. Something smells good." I step in closer.

Orenon lifts two bread rolls out of the box, handing them to Brianne and I. He then reaches in a bit further and pulls out a green object, about the size of half of the box. It's a bundle of leaves, steam rising out of it. Orenon unfolds a leaf and we all crowd around it to look inside.

"Ricemeal!" Brianne squeals with joy "We have this stuff at holidays back at home! But it never looks this good.

Together we sort out the rice, a sticky, bundle of rice filled with sausage, eggs, numerous plants which I cannot put a name to, chicken, and some flavours that I had never recognised before. We save the two bread-rolls for later, sticking them into my bag.

We sit around the camp, talking, testing out our different powers. We throw small rocks and sticks through Brianne, test the limitations of my animals and wonder over Orenon's large wings. We're giggling like crazy as we start to use bamboo poles to swordfight through Brianne when some dripping sound from the pond disturbs our fun.

The intruder, who steps out of the pond on bare, webbed feet, is quickly faced with an angel with a sword, a ghost with a knife, and me, a grizzly bear.

"Woah, I come unarmed and with peace." says the intruder. He holds up his hands and throws a large fish onto the ground infront of him, still flopping in the dirt. "Look, I brought lunch!" There's an awkward pause. "Look, I've heard you're the anti-careers, right? Well, I want in."

Although the main elephant in the room is the intruder who had apparently been hiding in our pond for hours, I found my attention strangely attracted to the flopping fish. At first I disregarded it as the grizzly's mind speaking, but the allure grew deeper, like I had a connection to the fish, the way it's tail flopped sideways in the dirt, up and down.

The intruder speaks up. "Look, although you might think you've got this whole map mapped out, with your wings and all, but I'm telling you, it goes much deeper than that, much, much deeper. I just need someone to help me use my findings, some people with firepower."

The fish flops up and down, much like a different type of tail, propelling itself through the water. The others keep talking, arguing, planning, bartering, I have no idea. I've zoned out, focusing on the fish. There is something about the fish. It's only after a few minutes that the fish stops, suffocates to death, which I remember.

"Dolphin. I have a dolphin too."

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**Okay, I swear, this is the last animal :) Tell me what you think! please! Any sort of criticism or ideas, or just a sentance is welcome**


	5. Chapter 5 - The Ageing

**Hi guys! Sorry this took so long, I've been pretty busy with some personal drama going on. Anyways, give me feedback! I promise more action and progression in the story next chapter**

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**Chapter 5:**

"Yeah yeah, we'll get to that later, Rit." Orenon shook off my last announcement, wings ruffling as his arm brushes past them. "I'm still curious about this new guy."

"Hell no," Says the new kid "you can become a dolphin? That's exactly what I'd need. It's perfect!"

Orenon stepped between us before anybody did anything rash. Being the eldest of us all, he stood up to his full height and summoned his voice to gain control. "Look, we don't know if we can trust you. Hell, I don't even fully trust these guys here. If what you're suggesting is that you want to join us to take out the careers, we're splitting apart straight after that."

The new guy grabs Orenon's hand and shakes it enthusiastically. "I'm in! I'm Wessen by the way, but you can call me Wess. I'm working on a superhero name too, so I'll keep you posted."

"What exactly is it that you do?" I ask

"I have webbed feet and hands," He pulled open his hands to show thin layers of skin joining the second knuckles together. "I also have gills on my neck," He pulls down his collar to show small grooves down his neck "And I can see well in the dark, underwater. I guess I'm made for underwater. What about you guys? What do you do? I'm guessing that your wings allow you to fly, but you," He points to Brianne "What about you?"

Brianne folds her arms over her chest. "I walk through stuff. Intangibility."

"Like a ghost…" whispered Wess "That should be your superhero name. Ghost."

Brianne rolled her eyes.

"And you, what about you?" He directs his gaze to me

"Beetle, bear, rhino, eagle, panther, dolphin. I change into them."

"You're a Shape-shifter, awesome. Your power is practically better than mine with just one of your forms. Hmmm…. Your codename is difficult…. Zoo? Ani…. Anima…. Menag…..Claw? No."

"How about mutt?" Says Brianne "Like the dog. They're mangy, smelly, just like him."

"Beast?" says Orenon, eyebrows raised hopefully.

"A good choice, Orenon, but vintage superheroes use that word too much. There's Beast, Beastboy, we need something original. How about Shift? Like, a shortened version of Shape shift?"

"I'll take it."

"And you, wing-guy." The conversation switches over to Orenon "I know it's a cliché, but you _have_ to be called Angel. It's just unquestionable."

Orenon nods in acceptance.

"And I, will be called…" he paused to construct his new title in his head. "Fish."

"No." Brianne said. "Not Fish. All that reminds me of is half-dead useless animals flopping around on the floor."

"Fine… I'll have to think of one later." He walks to his fish and picks it up. "Can we have lunch yet?"

We walk over to a bundle of stones arranged around a possible campfire place and sit in a circle. We all look at one another nervously.

"So…. Are we actually going to make a fire? In the arena?" I'm the first to speak what everybody is thinking.

"It's like, common knowledge that making fires is easy way to call anybody over; whether it is careers, mutts or other tributes. A lot of people have died from making a fire." Brianne whispered.

"My power allows me to eat the fish raw. I know it sounds gross, but it's helped me a lot." Wess shifts in his seat.

"I guess I could eat it as a bear, or a panther, or even my eagle."

"But what about us?" Brianne pointed to herself and Orenon. "How are we supposed to eat a raw-"

She is cut off as a small silver parachute falls on Orenon's lap. He barely has time to gather the floating fabric into a bundle when another parachute lands on top. A third one lands on his head and rolls to the ground.

"Orenon, someone's popular." I taunt.

Orenon stays silent. Opening the smaller silver container, he pulls out two small orange pills, engraved with a small WB on the side. He tries to talk, but his voice catches. Brianne takes the pills off him to examine.

"I think these are water-boiling pills. Gosh, these are expensive, Orenon, you must've done something pretty important to get these spons-" Brianne stops mid-sentence as she looks at Orenon.

He's openly crying as he pours over his second silver parachute. It's a card. We all look to one another awkwardly as Orenon continues to cry silently over his writing. Brianne leans over and gives him a hug as he drops the simple folded card into the dust to meet his discarded tears.

From a glance, the writing is too small to read without picking it up and studying the words, but that would be an invasion of Orenon's privacy. The one line that I did see, written larger than the rest of the text, said: _Happy Birthday_

Of course, Wess saw it too, and the little twelve year old brat didn't keep his mouth shut.

"Happy Birthday? It's your birthday! How old are you turning?"

I closed my eyes as Orenon gave a shaky reply. I feared the worst, and my fear was correct.

"Nineteen" Orenon sobbed.

A wave of realisation dawned over Wess's face "Only a few days after the reaping." He whispered to himself. "Maybe they'll let you go now?" his optimism wasn't as contagious as he thought. "Surely they'll let you go. I mean, tributes are from my age to eighteen, right? You're too old for this."

Wess stood up on his rock and screamed to the skies. "GAME MAKERS! YOU CAN TAKE HIM AWAY NOW. HE'S TOO OLD FOR THIS NOW. IT'S HIS BIRTHDAY! HE CAN LEAVE!" tears start streaming down Wess's face. Soon we are all crying.

''He can leave'' Wess repeated half-heartedly, but the game makers in the sky remained silent.

Orenon stood up and retrieved the last silver parachute, a large box about the width and height of my hand. Opening the hatch, he lifted out a note and a simple wood carving of a pair of wings.

Orenon read out this note aloud.

_Dearest Orenon,_

_We, the whole district of district 8 want to send these gifts to you on your birthday. We understand that in such circumstances celebration would not be appropriate, but we encourage you to not allow this turn of events get you down and affect your gameplay, and to think of your birthday in a light perspective._

_Love, 11_

"Well, it's settled then," Brianne said, her voice still strong after her face had been washed with rivers of tears "We're having a birthday party. We'll have presents, dinner, and the chocolate cake."

"Chocolate cake?!" Wess and I ask at the same time eagerly.

Orenon tilts down the silver parachute box, and underneath the note and the wings carving, was a simple, yet rich-looking chocolate cake.


	6. Chapter 6 - Gift shopping

**Here you guys go, chapter 6! I wanted a bit of solo work, so here it is**

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**Chapter 6:**

We forced Orenon to set up the campsite for the party while the rest of us went off to get presents. Wess dove down into his pond to look for more fish, he said he was going to make the birthday dinner. Brianne made a quick inventory check in her backpack and slinked off into the bamboo sticks, and I flew out over the vegetation to the forest.

_What do I get Orenon? I've only known him a few days._ I swooped between trees, looking for gift ideas. I considered asking for a gift from my sponsors, but decided against it. I should save my sponsors for the games and survival, not for celebrations.

Landing on the shadowy ground, my feathers melded to the dark sinewy muscles of a black panther. I slinked slowly through the undergrowth, searching for the perfect present.

My sensitive ears heard a twig snap. A waft of birds and wet fur hit my nose, and another smell that felt familiar; a scent I had briefly discovered with many different noses, the smell of metal and skin melding together. The metal girl was nearby.

Turning my head towards the smell, I follow it like a trail of breadcrumbs. I start to notice more of those deep violet birds with the jagged beaks. They became more common, sitting in the treetops like sentries. It seemed like the whole population of birds have assembled in this one area of the arena.

As I continued, I noticed the animals on the ground. Standing up on two short legs, they had short muddy fur. Their face represented a rodent, a short snouted rat or a chipmunk. They were about as tall as a human waist.

I knew these animals; they were meercalls; A muttation of a meerkat and a wolf, resulting in a large meerkat with vicious teeth capable of chewing through the side of a car in seconds, and dangerous front paws that knock heads off shoulders like footballs. They were used as guards at army campouts, but were retired when they began to attack anyone who crossed their path, whether it were a friend or a foe.

I walked between the meercalls cautiously. They took no notice of me, barely even a glance. I heard human voices.

"I think I got rid of all the metal now. Gosh, it took forever."

That's the girl with the metal. Another female voice sounds.

"At least it's quicker to put it on that to take it off, or else you'd be dead by now. How many of them were there?"

"Three. There was the chick who could walk through walls, a kid who turns into old animals and that twerp with the wings."

"Hey, that twerp is from my district!"

"He's a twerp. You know it. This is the hunger games; we need to keep an open mind about slitting everybody's throats out here."

"I guess you're right. Everyone must die, including the twerp."

A bird above me squawked.

"Someone's here."

I hear the shimmer of metal scraping on metal as the girl makes the transition from skin to silver. The other girl picks up a weapon; I can't hear what it is though. Two meercalls run into the clearing and form a guard around the two girls.

"Come out, we know you're there." The district 8 girl says, Orenon's partner.

I weigh my options, and step into the clearing. The two girls are standing in front of a campfire, creating a dramatic silhouette. The district 8 girl wields a wicked looking axe. They are flanked by two meercalls, and I see more appear out of the bush around the clearing. The canopy above was packed with the vicious looking birds.

_They're pretty certain they're safe, they even made a campfire_.

"Relax, it's some sort of cat muttation. I've got this." The district 8 girl drops her axe and points her hand to me.

"_Stay._" I instinctively stop in my tracks. I can feel her voice effect my panther brain, but my human conscience overtakes the commands and takes control. I pretend to fall victim to her powers.

"Lue, the animal changer turned into one of them. I think that's him."

"I'm not sure, I'm controlling this guy pretty well." She turns to her meercall guards "_Stand down_" They leave. The other girl responds my growing metal further up her arms and legs, leaving her chest and neck still skin.

"I think it's him, Lue, I think we should kill him now."

_"Come here._" I start walking towards them. "See? I've got him." She bends down as I arrive closer and pats my head like a kitten. I even close my eyes like I'd seen many different cats do in the past. The metal girl looks on from a distance, wearily.

"So, I we have our sentries, our guards, I think you can be our little assassin." Lue pats my head and talks to me like a toddler. She's very much dead when blood starts pouring from her neck, my fangs sinking into her flesh.

Metal girl shrieks as the last parts of her skin are encased in their metal shell. A canon fires off into the distance.

I step away from the carcass and transform to rhino, watching the metal girl wearily.

"Now neither of us can hurt each other. We're at a stalemate."

"It would appear so." Said the girl, walking slowly backwards on stiff metal legs.

As she leaves I change back to my panther, just so I could continue watching her leave as she gets out of range from my blurry rhino eyes.

She continues to walk to the edge of the clearing until she walks into a pair of meercalls. Another pair of meercalls stand up next to me. They sniff me, and deciding that I'm not human, walk on. More meercalls emerge from the shadows, free from Lue's control. They sniff the girl, but I already know the verdict; I can smell it too, she's definitely human, at least part of her is.

A bloodcurdling scream sounds off as the first meercall bites into her leg, it's destructive teeth breaking through the metal barrier, silver blood spurting from the wound. Another meercall bites into her waist, and she falls over.

The meercalls descend upon her, covered in silver blood they feast. Her screams still echo through the arena. I look up to the skies, eager to get out. The birds make a thick roof, and I am unable to get out. I let out fearsome roar, the roar of a fully grown panther, shaking the trees with my low vibrato baritone call. The birds flee to the skies, and the meercalls scurry back into the bush.

I look around me and see Lue's carcass. As a human, I quickly search it for any supplies I could take. I take a few knives, a pouch of dried fish and the silver pendant from around her neck. It's a silver rose, on a very pretty silver chain. I unclasp the chain and let the rose slip off. I put the rose in her jacket pocket neatly, and take the chain for my gift to Orenon. I change to eagle and get prepared to leave when I hear a splutter from the other girl.

"Kill… Kill me."

Her head is turning back to skin, chunks missing from her neck and shoulders, silver blood turning to the dark red substance. The meercalls have damaged her beyond any repair, but they haven't killed her.

I fly over to Lue's discarded battleaxe and lift it heavily by the handle, the double edged blades curving downwards. I fly above her and position the blades over her neck.

"Thankyou." She closes her eyes, bracing herself for death.

I let the axe drop and fly off into the skies, leaving the bloodbath behind. Another canon sounds off in the skies.


	7. Chapter 7 - A Celebration

**Hi guys, sorry I havent done anything for about... forever... but anyways I'm back and inspired and I hope to finish this if I get enough views and interested readers, so please tell me what you think.**

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**Chapter 7**

I'm still shaking when I land back into our haven. I just killed two people, my first kills. I barely even thought about the first one, all I needed to do was sit back and let the panther take over. I guess I could even argue that it wasn't me that killer Lue, it was the ferocious beast that shares my conscious. The other girl, _god, I didn't even know her name; _there was no blaming it on animal instinct. That was purely me. It was my human brain that picked up the axe and dropped it on her neck, no question about it. Either way, I was a killer.

Thirteen left. Twelve more to kill. Including my team, the anti-careers.

I land on the edge of the haven and try to look happy and refreshed. I bump into Brianne walking out of the bamboo sticks, struggling with a large grey rock in her arms. I quickly lean forward and take half of the weight of the rock between us.

"I heard the cannons, did you run into anyone?" Brianne is straight to the point.

"I ran into the metal chick and another girl who could control animals." I replied.

"Control animals? She didn't, you know…"

"No, of course not. I mean, I felt something, but I'm only part animal. I could handle it. Anyway, I killed them both. I'll tell you all about it at din-"

'Don't,' she interrupted, "It's Orenon's birthday. People die all the time in the hunger games. We're just going to ignore that for the night and pretend we're on a picnic."

I shift on my feet, the weight of the rock heavy in my arms.

"So, what's with this overly large rock?" I asked.

"It's a surprise." Winked Brianne. She lifted the rock and carried it by herself to the camp, plonking it unceremoniously on the ground. Orenon is perched on a rock beside Wess, his black wings spread lazily out on the dirt. Wess has a small array of cooking utensils he has scavenged, and is cooking two large fish in a pot of bubbling water. Two pills are floating in the water; the water-boiling pills that were Orenon's gifts.

Orenon is joking around with Wess, like an older brother, shoving and laughing around the fire.

"watch it, guys, you don't want to destroy the birthday dinner." I said, strolling up behind Brianne.

"It's almost done," said Wess, poking the fish with a stick, "It's pretty hard to tell though. Orenon, pass the plates please"

Orenon reaches behind him to a stack of bamboo segments. They're about a foot long each, and are cut in half, creating a half-cylinder bowl. I notice a pile of failed attempts at making the bowls to the side, along with a blackened-silver sword.

"Nice sword." I said.

"I left it behind when I came up before, I didn't want to scare you guys." Replied Wess "It's a bit too big for my body, I think it was made for someone a little older than thirteen, so the only action it's seen before is killing fish and bamboo poles. Orenon's pretty good at it, after a couple of practise runs."

"Where'd you find something like that?" Brianne asked, "I doubt you would've thought to pick up such a badly matched weapon at the cornucopia."

"They're all around the place, you just need to look. That kid with the shockwaves at the start threw everything around the arena when he died. I found this one at the bottom of one of the ponds."

"Really? We haven't seen anything around." Brianne said.

"You just have to look in all the right places." Said Wess. He looked around and up at the top of the bamboos. "There, on top of that bamboo pole, it's where I found these' He held up a roll of spoons and handed them around.

Wess and Orenon cut the fish in half and placed them neatly in the bowls. Wess plonked some rubbery green material on the side. Brianne eyed it nervously.

"It's seaweed, I've eaten it before. Try it, you might like it." Wess said, noticing Brianne's cautious gaze.

For the first few minutes, we ate in silence, enjoying the juicy fish and salty seaweed. We finished off the bowls messily, leaving no remains behind. It was by far the best we've eaten during the whole games; I'd even say it was better than the ricemeal we got in the stolen sponser.

"So, cake?" Wess asked greedily, his eyes glittering with happiness.

"let's leave it a bit, stretch out the whole night." Orenon patted his new adopted brother on the back and stretched his legs out in content.

"I know, present time!" Brianne eagerly lifted the heavy rock onto her lap and strummed on the top. "This one's from me. Hold out your hands."

Orenon held out his hands and Brianne lifted the rock on top. He braced his arms for the imminent weight, but the rock seemed slightly lighter than what he had imagined. A cool wave washed through his hands, and the rock fell through his fingers, just like Brianne's power. Brianne used her power to let the rock fall through Orenon's hands and sink into the dirt, leaving behind her cleverly concealed gift in Orenon's outstretched palms. Left behind was a cluster of silver sponser pots.

"Open one."

He lifted the lid and stared at the gooey green substance.

"I tried to make a brush, but it wouldn't work, so you'll just have to make do with these. You could probably use your fingers, but I used some of the nature around here, so I don't know if it is poisonous or not. Don't' eat it."

Wess opened another one, revealing a pink gooey substance. Another one was Orange, and Yellow, and some had two colours, some had three.

"Oh, I get it! You made paint!" Wess exclaimed.

"I know how much you love painting, you mentioned it last night, and how you painted the walls of your house with different colours, and the peacekeepers made you paint it all back."

Orenon's eyes are watering. I guess the older two of the group connected much more than I thought. I didn't even know that Orenon was a painter. I don't even know if he has a job like I do, or what Wess does either; I know he comes from the lumber district, but he definitely doesn't have enough muscles to show much work out in the fields.

I pull my present from my pocket, the silver chain taken from the district 8 girl. Hanging from the chain are two black feathers and a two dark brown feathers, two of Orenon's, and two of mine. Orenon looks like he doesn't know what to say, so I step in to break the silence.

"I saw that you got a pendant from your district, so I thought maybe you could wear it on this chain."

Orenon takes his pendant from his pocket and slips it on the chain between the feathers. The wooden wings tangle with the feathers in a mix of black and browns. Orenon slips the chain over his head and looks up to me with a wide smile.

"Thanks, Rit, this means a lot to me"

"Chocolate cake time?" Wess interrupts

"yeah Fish, Chocolate cake time" Orenon ruffles Wess's hair before the younger kid bounds off to fetch the cake.

The rest of the night would probably be the most fun anybody has ever had, and will have, in the hunger games arena. We had cake, games; Orenon made the most beautiful painting of the sunset as it fell down the side of the arena.

It was an amazing night, completely forgetting where we were and what we were meant to do, until two cannons shot off into the night.

Brianne and I exchanged a quick worried glance, but pretended not to notice. Orenon followed our lead, continuing on his finger painting of Wess, but Wess dropped the happy mood.

"I wonder who that was. It sounded brutal; both of those canons were pretty close together. That means there are seven left, plus us."

Wess tried to climb up the bamboo wall to get a higher view.

"I wonder if they're close, we wouldn't want any other tributes arriving here, wouldn't we?"

"I hate this place." Orenon grumbled, his voice taking a menacing turn.

"They expect us to kill each other, just to prove a point that the capitol are in charge. They treat us as toys, as playthings in their stupid game!"

Orenon's paint splattered fingers swipe at his painting, destroying his artwork, knocking it into the dirt. The national anthem plays and the sky lights up.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I shouldn't be here, Shut up!"

Orenon angrily throws his sword at the sky, it comes crashing down near Wess, sticking into the dirt. Brianne hurries over to Wess and holds on to him protectively.

Orenon hasn't finished with his rampage. Spreading black wings, Orenon takes off, leaving a cloud of dust behind.

"Rit!" Brianne screams at me over the blaring sound of the anthem "Protect him!"

I take off from the ground, my human fingers stretching out into brown feathers, my long legs shrinking to sharp talons as they leave the dirt. I try desperately to catch up to Orenon, but he swivels around, a dark silhouette against the blue capitol seal in the sky.

"Don't stop me." He says, anger lacing his voice

He kicks out his black boots and hits me square on my belly. I drop about one hundred metres, unable to catch up to the dark angel.

The sky is beginning to show the faces of the dead tributes from today. I recognise the girl from 8, who tried to use her powers to control me, and the girl from 9, with the metallic arms. Orenon flies closer to the screen, showing no signs of slowing down. The girl from 7 flashes on the screen as Orenon collides, blue electric shocks enveloping his black body as the force field electrocutes him. The girl from 12 appears on screen as Orenon begins to fall, limp and unmoving.

I fly up to catch him, but I am too weak and small to slow his descent. I fly underneath him and try to push him upwards when the screen shows Orenon's face.

Orenon is dead.

I let Orenon fall down as I float above him.

I watch his body be taken by the hovercrafts, a sorrowful funeral for a fallen angel.

Slowly, I fly back to Brianne and Wess. As I land, three gold pots float down to the campsite. I'm about to say something to the others when a boy my age jumps into the clearing, making a jump higher than the bamboo poles.

It's the boy from 4, a career. With a snide grin, he motions to the ground and with his mind lifts a chunk of dirt to hurl at Brianne. I see Brianne step through the dirt, and draw her two knives.

The bamboo behind Brianne heats up with a green tinge, and a blast of energy clears a neat hole in the foliage. The girl from 2 steps through, followed by the boy from 1.

The careers have arrived.

"Boys, Run!" Brianne screams at me.

I see Wess jump into the pond, disappearing under the surface with barely a ripple. Brianne turns and runs through the dirt-moving boy and disappears into the bamboo behind her. The dirt-boy reaches for his chest, and I realise that Brianne left a knife stuck in him as she escaped. I turn to fly away, but I am bombarded with rays of green energy, singing my feathers.

I will not escape from upwards.

I turn and dive downwards, aiming for the pond. At the last moment, I change to the sleek-grey skin of a dolphin, my wings shrinking down to rubbery flippers, my back rising up to a dorsal fin. I enter the water cleanly, diving deep down out of reach from the careers.

It's dark underwater, I can barely see, so I click my beak and a rough sketch is returned to my brain of my surroundings. This must be echolocation. A small shape makes its way towards me, covering the distance in surprising speed. I ready myself for battle, and out of the gloom shadows appears Wess, holding a finger to his lips.

"Are you okay?" Wess's voice seems to be tailored for underwater. "Let me show you what I discovered from living underwater, this might change the entire game, give us the upper hand."

I follow him into the darkness, my eyes on his shadowy, webbed feet.


	8. Chapter 8 - A swim

**Chapter 8**

We swam along through the wide tunnel, continuously going on a downwards slope. Occasionally, my echolocation would alert me to side passages branching off to who knows where. Tendrils of green seaweed poke through the rocks and stroke my sleek sides like fingers of creepy rapists and murderers. With my eyes, I could barely see past Wess's knees, but by emitting loud clicks with my dolphin head, the echo would bounce back to me, giving me a snapshot of my surroundings.

I can't believe Wess lived down here this whole time, anybody would easily lose their sanity in the darkness, the maze of tunnels and fingers of seaweed.

My echolocation warned me of a large opening out further, and Wess's swimming sped up. I powered my muscled tail and followed his trail of bubbles into a dimly lit cavern. Green crystals at the bottom of the cave glowed through the seaweed, showing schools of long fish, the same kind that we had for dinner. Above me, similar crystals hung to the roof like large green stars.

"Is that air above us?" My projected voice sounds muffled by the water.

"Yeah, come, I'll show you my old digs." Wess's voice strangely sounds unaffected by the water, I guess it all comes as part of his superpower.

Wess swims to the ceiling and climbs onto an unseen platform. I cautiously follow him, and for a slight moment, I don't want to turn back to human, I want to play, to dive and to chase fish. I quickly wrestle the dolphin part of my brain and take control, turning back to my human form to skull water at the surface. With Wess's help, I'm pulled up onto the platform beside him.

The platform isn't much, about the size of a king sized bed, the one in the training centre. There i signs of an attempted campfire, a circle of loose stones and a pile of wet sticks, but in place of a fire is a clump of the glowing green stones.

"I tried to make a fire but it was too wet," says Wess, motioning at the campfire. "The crystals give off light but no heat, so I've been eating everything raw."

In the corner of the platform there is a pile of seaweed, I guess that would be Wess's bed. Beside the bed are soggy boots and a collection of different equipment gathered from the cornucopia, as well as some handmade equipment, such as sharp rocks for knives and a crude-looking spear.

The rest of the platform is taken up by me and Wess, not much space left to move around, but plenty of water for drinking and swimming in.

"So, this is the thing that you wanted to show us, this underwater cavern?"

"No, that's not all, it's much bigger than just this."

I raise my eyebrows.

"The passages branching off to the sides, there are at least twenty coming from this cavern itself. They go to all the locations in the arena, the forest, the cornucopia, the bamboo poles, even the hills."

"The Hills?"

"Nobody has taken them yet, because there's nowhere to hide, but I haven't checked around the arena for a while now, not since I joined you guys."

"So, you want to use these ponds as a method of transport; A way to get around the arena without being detected?"

"Not just that, but I think we could use this to become assassins, to sneak out at night and kill our victims while they sleep next to their ponds."

The idea of killing people still seemed foreign and taboo to me. Wess saw me hesitate.

"You're going to have to keep killing, you know. You can't survive and still be weak in this arena; Especially this arena."

I stay silent, but Wess's message has sunk in.

Another cannon explodes in the air, its piercing sound muffled into a low boom from the water and rocks.

"I wonder how Brianne is going." Wess says, his voice quickly moving from rough, war-ridden teenaged boy to a scared, vulnerable child.

'She's fine; she's tough and can survive on her own for now. You should get some sleep, I'll take first watch. We can try some of that assassin stuff you talked about before later, with the ponds."

We sleep through the day and well into the late hours of sunlight, taking shifts of sleeping for three hours each. In-between shifts I practise my dolphin tricks and agility, I attempt to catch some fish and I do some aquatic training with my other animals.

I discover that my beetle morph sits well on the surface of water, but I have no control of my directions. My eagle form is an absolute failure at anything to do with water, and although my rhino can swim, I was clumsy and my ears kept flicking splashes water behind me. My best swimmers were the grizzly bear and the panther, able to float on top and paddle well enough to propel me through the water.

I also made a list, scratching a list of tributes on the cave wall and then crossing out the deceased. There are only eight left, but I had nine names on the board. Both the tributes from district 1, with their superspeed and something hair-related, the girl from 2 with her green energy beams, the boy from 3, the screaming girl from 5, the girl from 6, Wess, Brianne and I. One of us is dead, according to the cannon, but we have no idea who. I hope it's one of the careers.

We keep switching shifts of sleeping.

I was awoken suddenly by an excited Wess.

"I took a peek outside, the sun has set, let's go win this game."

We geared up, strapping knives to our shins and swords onto our backs. I tried convincing Wess that a giant trident was unnecessary and impractical, but he insisted, saying it 'went with his power'. I have to admit it did look pretty good with his image, like a god of the sea. That is, if the god of the sea was thirteen.

We explored the many ponds, searching for campgrounds and traces of nearby tributes. Wess shows me the hills, but he is right, there isn't anything interesting about them. I take a quick scan from the air but I see no traces of any recent campgrounds.

I re-enter the pond as another cannon sounds through the air and shakes my concentration. I re-enter the water still as an eagle, not a dolphin. My wings are ripped backwards and I feel as if they are going to be ripped out.

I quickly clear my head and switch to dolphin, the pain subsides as Wess swims back up to me.

"Are you okay? Shouldn't you have switched back to dolphin before re-entry?"

"I was startled by the cannon. I'm fine, no pain, see?"

"Yeah, but what about your bird form? What's to say the pain won't come back when you turn into him again?"

We swim back to the top to test my bird morph. I change with no problem into the eagle but when I attempt to take off into the air a searing pain rips into my wings. I quickly change back to human, writhing on the grass as the pain quickly crawls away.

"I think your wings are broken or something. I don't think you'll be able to fly unless you want to wait for it to heal."

So we crossed the eagle off the list of surviving tributes and moved on.

We continued swimming until a scream pierced through the water. With a quick look at each other, we powered off towards the commotion.

As got closer, the green seaweed took new forms, thinner, red, smooth seaweed that grew out of cracks in the rock and spun thin webs around the walls of the tunnel.

As the red seaweed got thicker the screaming got louder, until, we saw the screamer. It was the girl from five, the one who could scream with supersonic waves; the girl who inadvertently saved me at the cornucopia. Thick tentacles of red seaweed were wrapped around her arms, legs, head and torso, binding her kicking and screaming motions. More bundles of the seaweed rear up as if alive and slash at her body, attempting to strangle her and keep her trapped under the water.

Wess and I watch from a distance as the girl dies. We could've attempted a rescue, but that would've been against the point of the game. Eventually the girl stopped struggling and the cannon sounds.

"Do you think that the red stuff is from the gamemakers?" Wess says.

He curiously swims up to a small bundle of seaweed and rubs it between two webbed fingers. It quickly reacts to Wess's touch by whipping out blindly, searching for the intruder. Wess quickly powers backwards into my flank.

"Watch out, if that stuff catches you you're dead." I warn.

"It felt… almost like wet hair. But it was alive."

If I had hands instead of flippers I'd slap myself.

"This is the hair of the girl who could control her hair. I bet something happened to her mutation that made it grow this long."

"It's become like a web, I wonder how long it goes for."

"Well, we know what's at the centre of a web."

"A target."

It's almost sunrise.

"We should head back, come back in the next night, more prepared."

We turn back down the tunnel but we have reached a dead end. Hair has grown out of the cracks behind us, creating a thin spider web of hair behind us. The largest gap to get through was about the same size as Wess. We didn't want to risk the swim through the web without being caught.

We turned back towards the sunlight and swam through, dodging the stray strands of hair.


End file.
